Grain-door for freight-cars.



W. K. LAVIS.

GRAIN DOOR FOR FREIGHT CARS APPLIOATION FILED JUNB15, 1909 Patented001;. 4, 1910.

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W. K. LAVIS.

GRAIN DOOR FOR FREIGHT GARS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 15, 1909.

Patented Oct. 4, 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

calde Slide.

WILLIAM K. LAVIS, 0F LA GRANGE, ILLINOIS.

GRAIN-DOOR FOR FREIGHT-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed .Tune 15, 1909.

Patented Oct. 4, 1910.

Serial No. 502,298.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM K. LAvis, a citizen of the United States,residing at La Grange, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Grain -Doors foiFreight-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The principal object of my invention is to provide a new and improvedsectional grain door for freight cars.

Other objects are to provide a grain door that shall be simple andinexpensive to construct, not likely to get out of order, and convenientto use.

All these objects and others will become readily apparent in the perusalof the following specification and claims taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which I have illustrated one specilicembodiment of my invention.

The invention is dened in the appended claims and the drawingsillustrate one of many forms which the invention may take in actualpractice.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation of the. entire dooras viewed from within the car, looking out toward the door opening.Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and Gare sections taken on the correspondingly numberedlines in Fig. 1 and looking in the directions of the respective arrows.Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are fragmentary perspective views of details, and Fig.10 is a section on the line 10 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of thearrow.

Referring to Fig. l, the car floor is represented by the referencenumeral 15, the side wall 16 and the door opening 17. 'At one side ofthe door openin the vertical Z- bar 18 is secured to the oor post 21 bymeans of the stud bolts 19. The free ange of the Z-bar 18 is notched atintervals, and lateral projections 20 are turned inwardly, parallel tothe web of the Z-bar 18; their purpose will be explained later. Y

In a general Way, the door comprises sheet metal sections 22; asillustrated in Fig. 1 there are four such sections. The bottom edge ofeach door section 22 is bent inward horizontally as indicated by 23, andthen downward as indicated by 24, thus forming a shoulder 23, whichrests upon the guide 25. Each uide 25 has its upper part benthorizontalIy as indicated by 26, and then downwardly as indicated b 27,and its lower part bent into a horizonta plane as indicated by 28.Between the edges of the parts 27 and 28, a slot is left, and the upperedge of the door section 22 is bent horizontally as indicated by 29, toenter this slot, and then vertically as indicated by 30, the part 30lying between the parts 25 and 27 of theguide. It will be observed thatthe main part 22 of each door section is in a plane slightly in! clinedfrom the vertical, and therefore wedge shaped filler blocks 31 (seeFigs. 3 and 4) are attached to the door post 47, so as to fill thecorresponding space between said door post and the door sections 22. Thevertical steel bars 32 stand in spaced relation close to the ends of theguides and serve to keep the door sect-ions 22 in operative relation tothe guides. The bars 82 have their ends 33 bent aside to form toes,which are secured to the floor and ceiling of the car by means of studbolts 34.' At the bottom the guide takes a modified form, consistingsimply of a wooden strip 44 filling the space within t-he portions 23and 24 of t-he lowermost door section 22. The guides 25 may be securedto the inside car wall by means of the downturned ears 45 and screws 4G,as shown in Fig. 1. Another mode of attaching the guides to the wall ismore fully illustrated in Fig. 10, where screws 35 coperate with screwholes 36 to secure the guides 25 in place. The holes 37 provide accessto these screws. Obviously, I may employ either of these modes offastening for the guides 25, or I may employ both of them, or I mayprovide a different suitable means for securing the guides 25 to the carwall.

The front lower corner of each door section 22 is notched, as shown inFig. 7 by the reference numeral 38, the bottom of the notch being stillfurther recessed as indicated by 39. When the door section is closed,the notch 38-39 engages the lug 20, thus preventing the slide fromaccidentally becoming opened. It is obvious that a slight verticaldisplacement of the forward end of the sliding door section is necessaryin order to cause this notch 38-39 to engage with or disengage from thecorresponding lug 20, but the relation of the parts is such as to permitthis adjustment; this will be apparent on inspection of Fig. 2. The lugs20 perform another function, namely, they act as abutments to hold theupper forward corners of the sliding sections 22 toward or against thedoor post 21. In the drawings the thickness of the sheet metal issomewhat exaggerated for the sake of clearness, but a littleconsideration of the drawings will make this statement obvious.

The forward end of each door section 22 has a clip 40 riveted thereto,carrying a hand hold ring 41. Hooks 42 are secured by screws in theholes 43 to the inside face of the door post 21, and when the doorsections are closed these hooks 42 engage the rings 41 and positivelysecure the grain door sections in closed position. 1t will be observedthat the hooks 42 form an additional securing means intended tosupplement the lugs 2O co-acting with the notches 38, 39.

Assuming that the grain door is in closed position, an individualsection can be opened from the outside by lifting the hook 42, seizingthe hand hold 41, lifting and jerking back thereon, so as to disengagethe notch 38, 39 from the lug 20, and then shoving the door section backinto fully opened position. Even if loose grain is piled up against thedoor, the thin sheet metal 22 is readily pushed back through the grainwhen the strength of a man is applied for the purpose. The horizontalportions 23 and 29 of 'each door section adjacent to its lower and upperedge give the door section. great strength to resist the lateral thrustof the grain. The lower edge 24 of each section rests closely againstthe door sect-ion just below, as shown in Fig. 2, so that grain cannotleak out between the door sections. The downward weight of the grain onthe ledges 23 tends to hold the doors tightly in place. The varioussections are made interchangeable and the guides 25 are interchangeable.The door can be made upin any convenient Sizes, and can then be appliedto any size of door opening within ordinary limits without the necessityfor a special design. Thus it will be apparent that as many sections canbe used as may seem desirable, for it will not matter ifa slight spaceis left at the top of the door opening, or if, on the other hand, thetop section laps above the top of the door opening. No matter what thewidth of the door opening may be within reasonable limits the doorsections will be of such a length that when in closed position theyshould lap eighteen inches or two feet on the side wall of the car, sothat their movement will be controlled suiiiciently by the guides 25.

It will be observed that I have constructed a grain door adapted tofulfil the objects stated at the beginning of this specification andhavin the practical advantages pointed out, as we as others which willbe readily appreciated by those familiar with the art.

I claim:

1. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metalsections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, andsupporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of thedoor opening, said sections having their upper edges bent aside to formledges engaging the respective guides.

2. A grain door for a freight car, com- ]nising a plurality of sheetmetal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening,and supporting guides for said s ections on the car wall at one side ofthe door opening, said sections having their upper and lower edges bentaside to form ledges engaging said guides.

3. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metalsections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, andslotted rectangular guides attached to the car wall at one side of thedoor opening, the slots in the guides being in the side faces thereof,each door section having an edge thereof bent aside to enter and engagethe corresponding sleeve guide through the slot thereof.

4. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metalsections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, theplane of each section being slightly inclined from the vertical, so asto facilitate the bottom edge of each section lapping closely past thetop edge of the next adjacent section below supporting guides for saidsections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, andwedge-shaped filler blocks attached to the wall adjacent to the dooropening between the wall and said inclined door sections.

5. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sectionsadapted to slide horizont-ally across the door opening, supportingguides for said sections on the wall at one side of the door opening,and a Z-bar having one flange attached to the car wall at the oppositeside of the door opening and the other flange being disposed to formwith the car wall a. channel to receive the ends of the sliding doorsections when they are in closed position, segments of the free edge ofthe Z-bar being bent inwardly and the door sections having notches nearthe ends thereof to engage said segments.'

6. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sectionsadapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, supporting guidesfor said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, and aflanged member attached to the car wall 0n the opposite side of the dooropenin and adapted to receive the ends of the siding door sections whenin closed position, one flange of said member having int-urned lugs andthe ends of the sliding door sections having notches to engage saidlugs.

7. A grain door for a freight car comprising a plurality of similarsheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across thedoor'opening, the plane of each section sleeve CIK being slightlyinclined from the vertical and the top and bottom edges being bent backin opposite directions, the lower edge of each upper section lappingpast the upper edge of the section below, and supporting guides for saidsections on the car wall at one side of the door opening.

8. A grain door for a freight car comprising a plurality of sheet metalsections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, andslotted sleeve guides for said sections on the car wall at one side ofthe door opening, the upper edge of each section entering the slot ofthe corresponding sleeve guide above the same and the lo-wer edge ofeach section being bent aside to form a ledge, said ledge resting uponthe guide below the same.

9. A grain door for a freight car comprising a pluralityT of sheet metalsections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening,supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of thedoor opening, each section having a ledge along its to edge and itsbottom edge, and each gui e being engaged both by the bottom ledge ofthe door section above and by the top ledge of the door section below.

10. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheetmetal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening,the plane of each section being slightly inclined from the vertical,supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of thedoor opening, and wedgeshaped filler blocks attached to the walladjacent to the door opening between the wall and said inclined doorsections, the upper edge of each section lapping past the lower h edgeof the section above 1t.

In testimony whereof, I have subscribed my name.

WILLIAM K. LAVIS. Witnesses:

HENRY A. PARKS, ANNA L. VVALTON.

